SEVEN people have died and 123 have been infected in another large-scale flu outbreak at a Victorian seniors community.
The seven victims were residents at St John's Village in Wangaratta in the state's north-east.
Of the 146 residents and 200 staff at the facility, 123 have been affected by the flu over the past few weeks.
Victoria's acting chief health officer Brett Sutton said Victoria was at the peak of "one of the worst flu seasons ever".
"In aged care facilities, the flu can spread quickly," he said. "Sadly, for the frail and people with underlying health conditions the flu can be very serious."
The seven residents who died were aged between 70 and 94 and had existing medical conditions that made them susceptible to the flu.
Dr Sutton said the outbreak at the village was now subsiding.
However flu outbreaks, particularly in aged care facilities, are at very high levels this year, he said. There have been 208 respiratory outbreaks this year compared with 104 for the same period last year.
In August, three elderly residents of Royal Freemasons' Monash Gardens residential care centre in Mulgrave died and 35 other residents were infected.
So far this year, there have been 11,300 confirmed cases of the flu in Victoria.
Dr Sutton urged anyone with flu symptoms to avoid visiting aged care facilities.
St John's Village has been contacted for comment.
Australia is in the midst of what is likely to be the worst flu season in at least 15 years, with more than 100,000 people struck down so far this year.
Experts say there are four different strains of the virus circulating this year: Influenza A-H1N1, A-H3N2, B-Victoria and B-Yamagata.
The record-breaking flu season is impacting the state's hospitals, with ambulances being forced to queue outside emergency departments.
"Everyone is at maximum capacity," Ambulance Victoria's executive director of emergency operations Mick Stephenson said. "We have noticed an increase of up to 30 per cent in the amount of time we lose waiting in a queue."
Ambulance Employees Association Victorian assistant secretary Danny Hill said also attributed a return of "ramping", where ambulances have to wait outside emergency departments, to the flu season.
"We are seeing ramping and we are seeing crews unable to respond to cases because they're queued up at a hospital," he said. "This flu season has been particularly bad. It is causing a lot of delays."
